Native Feminisms Engage American Studies

Abstract

Building and the development of a U.S. empire, this forum aims to make a critical intervention in the field of studies by centering the analytical categories of both gender and indigeneity. This forum originated partly as a series of roundtables presented at the ASA in 2006 and will be further developed in an upcoming edited volume, Native Feminisms without Apology, published by the University of Minnesota Press. Native feminisms go beyond simply addressing women's status or calling for the inclusion of indigenous women's voices. Rather, Native feminisms transform how we understand the project of sovereignty and nation-building in the first place. They challenge how we conceptualize the relationship between indigenous nations and nation-states, how we organize for sovereignty, and how we tie sovereignty to a global struggle for liberation. The writings in this collection suggest that not only is colonialism a gendered process, but so is decolonization. The imposition of patriarchy within Native communities is essential to establishing colonial rule, because patriarchy naturalizes social hierarchy. Thus, when Native activists lack a strong analysis of heteropatriarchy, they are less equipped to interrogate some of the colonial paradigms that might be implicit within purportedly pro-sovereignty political projects. Although few Native women have written on the topic of feminism, most argue that feminist politics are in conflict with the politics of sovereignty and self-determination. These writings have all made valid critiques of mainstream (usually white and middle-class) feminist politics. However, this forum calls into question several assumptions often made by those arguing that Native women cannot be feminist. One of the most cited writings on Native women and feminism is Annette Jaimes Guerreros American Indian Women: At the Center of Indigenous Resistance in North America, in The State of Native America. In this early piece, she argued that Native women activists, except those who are assimilated, do not consider themselves feminists and that according to Native women, feminism is an imperial project that assumes a